Well, guess what. They’re going to pack her up and send her to Golden Gate Park to be put on display for the first half of 2013 at our de Young Museum.

This is huge.

All the deets:

Girl with a Pearl Earring: Dutch Paintings from the Mauritshuis – At the de Young Museum January 26—June 2, 2013

San Francisco, October 2012–The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco are pleased to announce that on January 26, 2013, the de Young Museum will be the first North American venue to present Girl with a Pearl Earring: Dutch Paintings from the Mauritshuis, a selection of paintings from the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague. The de Young will host 35 paintings from the collection, including the renowned Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer, The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius, and four works by Rembrandt van Rijn. Highlighting the spectacular artistic achievements of the Dutch Golden Age, these works reflect the culture of artistic, economic, and technological innovation that allowed the Netherlands to prosper in the 17th century.

At the center of this exhibition is one of the world’s most famous paintings, Vermeer’s masterpiece, Girl with a Pearl Earring. This work, sometimes called “the Dutch Mona Lisa,” is one of only 36 known paintings by the artist and rarely travels outside the Netherlands. Though little is known about Vermeer’s life, the quiet grace and virtuoso technique evident in his paintings, and in particular his rendering of light, have placed him among the most important artists of the 17th century. Many of the details of his technique can only be appreciated through close examination of the painting surface, such as the few tiny brushstrokes that indicate the reflection on the pearl, and the broader, more expressive painting of her ultramarine and yellow turban.

“Vienna’s treasures now are on loan to the de Young, the only stopping place for “Masters of Venice.” As before, with Tutankhamen and French Impressionists, Fine Arts Museums Director John E. Buchanan Jr. and President Dede Wilsey have found a golden opportunity for The City to act as a temporary “storehouse” for a collection whose home is being renovated.”

This is it, this is your must-see show, it’s just one after the other:

Saint Sebastian (ca.1457–1459) by Andrea Mantegna, represents early Renaissance painting and is the first of three paintings on this subject by the artist. In this work Mantegna incorporates details of ancient sculpture and architecture which organizes the pictorial space through linear perspective.

Four rare works by the enigmatic painter Giorgio da Castelfranco, known as Giorgione. The Three Philosophers (ca. 1477–1510), one of the most celebrated works of the 16th century, uses an innovative integration of the figures within the spatial continuum of nature which marks a dramatic advance in the evolution of Western representation imagery. Also featured in the exhibition is his beautiful Portrait of a Young Woman (Laura)(1506) and pensive Youth with an Arrow (ca. 1508–1510).

More than a dozen works by Tiziano Vecellio, know as Titian, once Giorgione’s assistant, whose talent soon rivaled his master’s. His work is synonymous with the Venetian style — lustrous pigments, sharply graduated light and shadows delineating robust forms such as his sumptuous Danaë (1560s) and the mysterious and moody Bravo (The Assassin) (ca.1515–1520).

The tapestry-like, shimmering and sensuously colored works by Paolo Caliari, known as Veronese including the grand scaled Annointing of David (ca. 1555), and the dishonored heroine Lucretia (1528–1588), whose creamy skin and sumptuous fabrics divert the viewer’s eye from her suicide blade.

What you need to know:

Venetian paintings from this period have not been shown in the United States since 1938, and they will be shown only at the de Young.Where: De Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, Golden Gate Park, San FranciscoWhen: The exhibit continues through Feb. 12. The museum is open 9:30 a.m to 5:15 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. It is closed Nov. 24, Dec. 25 and Jan. 1.Cost: $10-$20

But remember, this all ends February 12, 2012.

See you there!

It starts off with a big photo of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which contains one of the four big “princely collections” (along with the Louvre, the Hermitage, and the Prado)

“FINAL WEEKS FORPICASSO: MASTERPIECES FROM THE MUSÉE NATIONAL PICASSO, PARIS

EXHIBITION CLOSES MONDAY, OCTOBER 10

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—The exhibition Picasso: Masterpieces From the Musée National Picasso, Paris enters its final weeks at the de Young Museum in San Francisco and closes on October 10. The exhibition travels next to Sydney, Australia for its run at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

This exhibition of 150 important paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings created by Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) is drawn from the permanent collection of the Musée National Picasso, Paris the largest and most significant repository of the artist’s work in the world, and comes to the de Young as part of an international tour. The artwork is touring because the Musée is currently closed and undergoing a multi-year renovation expected to last through 2012. Ranging from informal sketchbooks to finished iconic masterpieces, this unique collection of “Picasso’s Picassos” provides significant proof of the artist’s assertion that “I am the greatest collector of Picassos in the world.”

The exhibition, co-organized by the Musée National Picasso and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, is part of a world tour that began in 2008 with stops at museums in Madrid, Helsinki, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Seattle, Richmond (VA), San Francisco and Sydney.

Hours and Ticket Prices The exhibition Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris has the following hours:

Organization This exhibition is co-organized by the Musée National Picasso, Paris and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Bank of the West is Presenting Sponsor. Christies and Hanson Bridgett LLP are Sponsors. Major Patrons are Penny and James George Coulter, and the Estate of Mary Price Moffatt. Lead Patrons are The Ray and Dagmar Dolby Family Fund, The Bernard Osher Foundation and Douglas A. Tilden, and the Lead Sponsors are Isabelle and Charles Picasso.

About the de Young Museum The de Young, designed by Herzog & de Meuron and located in Golden Gate Park, is the nation’s fourth most visited art museum. It showcases American art from the seventeenth through the twenty-first centuries, international textile arts and costumes, and art from the Americas, the Pacific, and Africa.

As seen outside the Big New Picasso Show. (And actually, there’s a reason why you can see the Godzilla-style zipper on the back – can you think of why? Look for it, before or after your Picasso tour, and you’ll find this piece somewhere in the de Young…)

The de Young hosts an extraordinary exhibition of more than 100 masterpieces by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) from the permanent collection of Paris’ world-renowned Musée National Picasso. The once-in-a-lifetime exhibition, made possible only because of the temporary closure of the Musée Picasso until 2012 for extensive renovations, comprises paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints drawn from every phase of the artist’s career. The works on view demonstrate the wide range of artistic styles and forms that the artist mastered, including: La Celestine (1904), from the artist’s Blue Period; Two Brothers (1906), from the Rose Period; Expressionist studies for Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907); the Cubist Man with a Guitar (1911), the Neoclassical Portrait of Olga (1917), the artist’s wife; the proto-Surrealist Two Women Running on a Beach (1922); Portrait of Dora Maar (1937), the artist’s lover and famed French artist; six Surrealist bronze heads of the artist’s mistress, Marie-Therese Walter; the Head of a Bull (1942) fabricated from a bicycle seat and handlebars; the bronze Goat (1950); the six life-size bronzeBathers (1956); and the late self-portrait, The Matador (1970).